


The Eye of the Storm

by ShadowHaloedAngel



Series: Then and Now [2]
Category: Iron Man 2 - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers
Genre: Coulson is the best handler, Gen, How to be a person, Natasha and Clint are best friends, Natasha is a badass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 14:40:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/954317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowHaloedAngel/pseuds/ShadowHaloedAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha has come a long way from what she once was, and sometimes situations arise which highlight the differences between what she was then, and who she is now. Now she is at the eye of the storm, and chaos merely happens around her.</p><p>Set during the events of Iron Man 2</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Eye of the Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flightinflame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/gifts).



> I'm on a crappy internet connection so it isn't letting me tag properly. There will be better tags when I have a better connection so I can use the suggestions etc. because I'm probably forgetting a million things.

She moved with confidence, striding towards the building while her mind raced through calculations of how much time she had, possible resistance, all the variables which were thrown together in this situation. She was in control of all of them. She was responsible for all of them, and there were lives at stake this time, lives she had come to care about. She usually made a point of not getting emotionally involved on missions, particularly undercover ones (feigned relationships were different), but this had been an exception. The people she'd met at Stark Industries were different from anyone else she'd met before. 

There was a man whose past had completely destroyed him and who had rebuilt himself from the ashes, made himself something good just as she had fought to do when she had finally made the choice to stop running, when she had finally begun to be a person. There was a woman in a man's world who ran everything with phenomenal efficiency and a low tolerance for bullshit that Natasha could admire. She killed with blades and stingers, Pepper killed with words and contracts, but still there were parallels she could appreciate.

If this went wrong then the technology would be in the wrong hands and the world would be at risk. She was aware of the world now, of the whole of it, not just the Motherland and the Enemy. She had somehow become one of the people who saved it. It used her skills for good and though her ledger still dripped red, the gushes had somewhat stilled and little by little she was beginning to wipe it clean. 

After all of the training that she could not trust the Americans, when she had realised she could not trust her handlers either she had made the choice for the more competent side and the archer with eyes like hers who had given her a chance. They were friends now, partners, and she had someone who understood how she thought and reacted, someone who was damaged in, if not the same way, ways that were similar enough for them to know each other more intimately than anyone else ever could. His boyfriend was there too, the handler with the calm eyes who protected and valued his assets, whose voice at the end of a comm line was the most comforting thing she had ever heard. He wasn't running this op but there were others who she trusted almost as much.

Trust was something that was a part of this new life she'd made. Trust in others and herself, and the knowledge that pain was not an acceptable consequence if something went wrong, that not all failure was her fault. It was a new idea, but one that actually made her feel stronger, more willing to take risks. She had been well trained, and her judgement was now legendary.

The facility was well guarded, and though she had Stark's well meaning idiot of a bodyguard trailing behind her, she knew she could handle it. This time it was personal. Vanko was someone she knew. He had been at Red Room, had taught her coding, and she knew his work better than anyone. But he was threatening things that were more important than just her new found life and stability. She wasn't the little Natalya who had danced in the snow of a Moscow night and curled up in his lap for extra time at the computers and the possibility of some candy any more. She was the Black Widow, exactly as they had made her to be, only more intelligent, more independent, and fiercer than they could ever have dreamed.

The guards fell like dominos, though possibly with a little more exertion. She enjoyed the chance to stretch after so long in the confines of a business suit. She was still surprised Stark hadn't hit on the well chosen persona, but it was a... pleasant surprise, at least. She was still powerful, still strong, still flexible, and she gloried in the joy of movement perhaps even more now that she had the freedom to do so. 

The prize was gone, but there was some poetic justice in it being Stark who landed the final blow, and she could help, there was value in her skills and her assistance, in everything she had learned.

If she had been anyone else there might have been a lump in her throat at being able to give his best friend back to him, but of course she didn't have such emotional reactions. Before SHIELD, before this new life, she wouldn't have been able to comprehend that gesture for what it meant, but now she had her own best friend and imagining their situations reversed meant she could understand how much this had cost him in far more than just abstract terms. Friendship had always been a weakness, but now she understood that it was a special sort of strength nothing else could match.

Red Room might have crafted her, but it was SHIELD who had made her into someone to be truly feared, someone more than a weapon. 

She was the Black Widow. She was Natasha Romanoff. And now those two roles were not mutualy exclusive, and she was free to be whoever she wanted to be.


End file.
